A FORMER soldier was jailed after he screamed racial abuse at the owners of a kebab shop as he threatened them with a samurai sword.

A FORMER soldier was jailed after he screamed racial abuse at the owners of a kebab shop as he threatened them with a samurai sword.

Wayne McNeil, 34, who was high on drink and drugs, later denied that he was a racist and he said that he was gutted by his behaviour in the Middlesbrough takeaway which was captured on CCTV and shown in court.

McNeil, who was medically discharged from the Army in 1999, yelled abuse at Jamil Baksh and his son Adam.

The store’s five-minute CCTV footage showed him being dragged to the floor by three police officers after he had been disarmed by an unidentified male friend who put the sword back in its scabbard.

He told police later that he did not know where he got the sword from after initially leaving the Chill At Hanley’s kebab shop in Victoria Road, Middlesbrough, during the bizarre teatime incident on December 7 last year.

He apologised and then left the shop, returning seconds later with the two-foot samurai sword. Mr Crook said that Mr Baksh junior feared for his life during the sword episode, and the Crown said that the incident was aggravated by racial abuse. McNeil said that he had been drinking alcohol and been taking methadone.

McNeil had received £29,000 compensation from the Ministry of Defence after he was discharged from the Royal Engineers following a badly broken ankle, and he began spending the money on alcohol and drugs. He built up a criminal record for drugs and thieving.

Duncan McReddie, defending, said that McNeil was now free of drugs.

He added: “To this day he has no idea where the weapon came from, or why he went to this shop.

“He has been to prison before and he says that a prison sentence holds no terrors for him. He puts it ‘I can do it standing on my head’, he has been in Kosovo under fire.”

The judge, Recorder Jonathan Bennett, told McNeil that he had created mayhem in the shop. He said it was a “racially aggravated offence, and the sentence is increased by 20% by what was said at the time”.

McNeil, of Asquith Road, Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to affray and possession of an offensive weapon.